


Return to Blackhell

by Prodigital



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, I dunno how this works but Max is a demon so thats cool
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:35:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22684087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prodigital/pseuds/Prodigital
Summary: On September 10, 2013 Maxine Caulfield was found dead due to a supposed intentional overdose. Typically that's how the story would end, but with the rules being bent for her by hell's new head honcho she has a chance to finish what was started. If she can go without getting found out. (But its max so she absolutely won't)
Relationships: Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price
Comments: 47
Kudos: 78





	1. Infernum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After her death Max wakes up in a foreign location with a unknown host.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had this idea swimming in my head for a hot minute (get it) and decided to turn it into a readable piece. Gonna try to plan these out so it dosent turn into a dumpster fire. Regardless I hope you enjoy.

_September 9, 2013_

_Mr. Jefferson wants to give me after school photography lessons! I KNOW RIGHT! THE world famous Mark Jefferson wants to personally teach me. He said I have a "unique almost childlike wonder perspective of the world" and wants to show me new horizons. That mean girl Victoria would love to jump on this opportunity seeing as how she basically gives him a lap dance every day. (Ok no too far Max). Anyways I should be gathering my stuff and head out now. Maxoxo_

* * *

Max woke up feeling numb all over. Well no numb wasn't the right word for it there was certainly one emotion in her she just couldn't recognize it. Her mind felt shredded as if someone took the part of her brain that recollected the last 24 hours and put it in a blender. She thought she remembered seeing a bright white light but she wasn't sure. Her vision wasn't faring well either she might as well have been blind. Slowly after what seemed like a lifetime her sense of vision was returning to her. As shapes started to form around her she slowly began to see her new location. After a minute or two she realized that she was in... an office?

_"Did I fall asleep in Well's office or something?"_

_"Wait... no... hold on that doesn't sound right at all. Wasn't I hanging out with-_

"Finally awake after your nap I see, bout time too" An unknown voice cut through her thoughts. Max yelped and jumped out of the seat she was evidently sitting in. Fully awake Max was now able to see someone standing behind a filing cabinet in the front of the room. "Whoops didn't mean to scare you, I just assumed it'd be rude if I didn't ask about your state as you were slipping back into reality" Max couldn't see the person the voice belonged too, but by the tone of the voice she could tell there was a smug undertone present in it. Finally, the person walked from behind the cabinet and Max finally got a good look at them. The voice belonged to a man. This mystery man as Max cleverly dubbed him in her mind was relatively well put together. He wore an orange Hawaii button-up shirt unbuttoned over a black t-shirt accompanied by blue jeans and unbranded shoes. His skin was an ashy white and tourist sunglasses blocked Max from seeing his eyes. Topping it all off was shaggy black hair that clearly wasn't tended to. He flashed a toothy grin and Max swore his teeth were canine-like. The man began to spoke again.

"Normally I would have woke you up myself like 3 hours ago, but I assumed you'd need some peace before I drop the several bombshells I have for you" he started.

_"The heck is this dude talking about?"_

"Excellent question and I'll get to that in one short moment but first I'd to confirm some things" the voice spoke and now Max could plainly see that yes, in fact, there was a smug tone present. The man's dopey grin gave it away.

_"Wait how did he... did he just read my mind or-_

"Yes now, can we start," the man asked. Max was dumbfounded but reluctantly pulled her head up and down into a nod. "Now your name is Maxine Caulfield correct?" The fact he knew her name should have surprised her but after that stunt he pulled him knowing her name didn't seem that outlandish. She nodded yes. "And you lived in Arcadia Bay, Oregon until you moved to Seattle in 2008ish correct?" _Ok, now it was in the scary territory again_. She nodded again. "You..." he squinted looking at a paper he held in his hand. "Returned Arcadia Bay recently to attend Blackwell Private School-" _ok yep really creepy creep alert stranger danger_ "-to be taught by Mark Jefferson, Yes?" Suddenly Max's train of thought derailed and flung off a cliffside and instead her entire body was overtaken by the unknown emotion boiling inside her. 

_"What the heck is this feeling. I feel gross but it feels justified. I could have sworn it started when I-_

"You gotta answer the question sometime Maxine we do have all the time in the universe, but I'd like to finish this," the man asked with raised eyebrows. "It's Max never Maxine" she replied sternly and immediately. It's been a rule ever since meeting Chloe and it's stayed ever since. "Ok yep nope that's the thing I forgot ok so, finally your parents are Ryan and Vanessa Caulfield your old friend was Chloe Elizabeth Price, daughter of the widowed Joyce Price and Deceased William Price." _Ok yeah no this is far beyond frightening fuck this_. "Ok pause how do you know all of this, who are heck are you, and where am I" the questions pouring out of her mouth with each question raising her voice significantly to the point her tone startled her. "Oh it's simple you're in Hell" he replied nonchalantly like it was the most obvious thing in the world. " **WHAT?!** "

_"Hell?!? Wait that means I'm **DEAD**! I fucking died?! How the hell did I die?! And wait why the fuck am I in Hell?!"_

That question bothered her more than the fact that she was dead. She wasn't a devout Christian by any means, but she still believed in the existence of God and Heaven even if it was more of a comfort thing. Kate Marsh didn't have a problem with her and she was like the poster child for Christianity. She didn't do anything awful besides maybe the typical trouble for children to get into. Surely it wasn't because of her practically ditching Chloe right? She beat her self up about weekly already. They don't damn someone for ghosting people, right? She felt like asking the apparently all-knowing man in front of her, but she couldn't. She was too afraid of the answer.

_"Wait a minute. If I'm in hell and he is this all-knowing being than by deduction that means"_

"You're Satan aren't you," Max asked in a tiny voice. The man laughed and looked at Max with an irritating grin on his face making him look like a jackass in Max's eyes. "No, no, no hun I'm not Satan he's my father" he explained. "My name is Lucifer" he finished with an exaggerated bow. Max could have sworn she heard a glass being broken in her head as a mental representation of her confusion. "But Lucifer and Satan are the same person." She didn't read the bible cover to cover but she couldn't have missed something simple like that. "Well you're technically right," Lucifer said as he sat on his desk. "My real name is Lucifer Jr. but after my pops died I got rid of the junior part seeing as how I'm the only Lucifer alive" he explained with his hands full of motion during the explanation. "Satan died?" She asked then paused and continued again "what horrible unstoppable force had the ability to kill the ruler of hell?" "Boating accident" he replied.

_"The fuck?"_

"I'm sorry a boating accident?" max asked still completely taken aback. "Mhm old bastard never stood a chance now moving on" he got up and moved the end of the room behind his desk.

_"Ok I guess we're moving on from Satan dying in a goddamn boating accident"_

Lucifer pulled down a projector screen from the ceiling. A projector somewhere in the room came to life and the words MY NEW HOME HELL Q 'N A popped up on the screen. "Now you must be thinking why am I not being tortured right now isn't this Hell," he said mimicking Max's voice. "That thought occurred yes" Max replied flatly. "Ooooh, sassy I like it, anyways Hell has changed a lot since I took over for one we no longer torture the damned. The reason being it was frankly too much work and it just caused pointless riots and headaches. So we just stopped the program altogether and if a sinner disobeys we just simply kill them" he explained 

_"How does someone die in hell?"_

"Don't think about it too hard" he cut into her thoughts once more. "And the second question should be how did I die. Or maybe that should have been the first question, but whatever." Max nodded and again the foreign emotion filled her. "Now you might want to buckle up because this is one of the bombshells I talked about" he stopped looked at Max with uncertainty and curiosity then started once again. "You were murdered-" "what" max cut in "-by Mark Jefferson"

_"What the fuck did he just say"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go the first chapter of Return to Blackhell. As I said I'm planning these chapters out to make them as good as they can be. The next chapter will show the moment Max was pronounced dead and a certain someone's reaction to it. Leave comments and suggestions I want to take them into account to shape this story.


	2. Mortis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max’s death comes to light and Chloe finds out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first chapter did better than I expected (though it could be normal for this website) so I swiftly put together the second chapter. I WOULD have has this up yesterday, but I went to see the sonic movie with a large group and lost track of time. Whoops. Anyways enjoy.

_Max,_

_Still can’t believe I’ve resorted to this shit again. Everything was fucking fine! But now Rachel has left me just like everyone else has. Now look at me I’m back to this shit once again organizing my thoughts in a damn journal like a middle schooler. Yeah that’s right fucker I’m not talking to you I’m organizing my thoughts. Hey here’s a thought did you give Rachel some ghosting tips? Are you two living it up in LA somewhere laughing at me? No. The answers no. She’s not like you she wouldn’t do that. Something happened I know it and I’m gonna find her._

_Chloe, the best friend rescuer_

* * *

One hundred and forty-one days. It’s been exactly one hundred and forty-one days since Rachel Dawn Amber, Chloe’s best friend, and pseudo lover went missing. Chloe knows exactly how long it’s been because she’s counted every. Single. Day. Since she vanished. People have said in the past that she followed Rachel around like a lost puppy and right now those jabs were pretty damn true. She’s traced all her footsteps, been to every place she’s been, and talked to everyone she’s talked to and still nothing. So now she waits for any sort of clue to lead her to something other than a dead end. She’s been waiting a while. One hundred and forty one days to be exact.

“You got any better ideas Elvis?” Chloe flicked the bobblehead on its cheek making it shake in a no response. “Didn’t fucking think so” Chloe muttered under her breath. She took a drag of her cigarette before flicking the ashes to some location in the bottom of her car. She eyed the Elvis bobblehead again. “Ok! Yes, I know it’s a bad idea to corner that kid, but there is literally no other person left. Everyone else has given me practically everything they know except for him. What am I supposed to do huh? Just let that asswipe roam while he refuses to answer me? If so then fuck living.” After her abrupt tirade, she slammed her head onto the steering wheel causing her rust bucket of a car to blare.

_“I’m talking to a goddamn bobblehead. What am I doing with my life?”_

Chloe flipped her head up and turned on her phone. The date was September 10 and the time was 2:36PM, Chloe has been sitting in the Blackwell parking lot for around two hours at least. She arrived early to hang up another round of missing person posters around the campus because someone keeps taking them down. Chloe blames Victoria and well she wasn’t wrong. Chloe begins to scroll through the news and Facebook again for literally anything involving Rachel. She comes up empty-handed. Well… until she comes across a brand new article from the Arcadia Informant.

**Earlier today police discovered a currently unnamed body slightly outside the outskirts of Arcadia Bay. The body belongs to a female with short brown hair and a skinny figure. Police are urging residents to help them identify the body and shed some light on the upcoming case.**

Chloe blinks once. Then twice. Finally, her brain catches up to her. “Shit someone was found dead? In a place like this?” Chloe sits on it a little bit before remembering that the person is likely someone she didn’t know or doesn’t give a shit about and brushes it off. “As long as it’s not a blonde with a feather earring I don’t give a fuck” he states to no one in particular. She stares at the bobblehead again. “Okay, yeah I know that’s an awful thing to say can you get the fuck off my crack?! Let me be selfish damnit!” The bobblehead doesn’t respond surprisingly. Flicking her cigarette out the window she decides that spending another two hours here isn’t going to do much so she begins to pull out of the Blackwell parking lot. As she speeds down the highway making sure everyone in Arcadia Bay knows she doesn’t have a license she begins to mentally check the places she’s looked at today.

_“School, check. Two Wales, check. Woods, check. Sawmill, check. Junkyard, triple check. Lighthouse….. did I check the lighthouse?”_

The lighthouse wasn’t exactly a place she and Rachel went to regularly since their spot became the junkyard, but they went there once or twice. The lighthouse was more of Max and her place. She began thinking of the lighthouse then to her time there alone, then with Rachel, then with Max, and then her decent mood flung right out the window. Even after 5 years, the sheer thought of Max alone could still bring her into a sour state. She’s long since accepted the fact that Max has ditched her and moved on, at least the thinks she has. But just her name alone would still send her into a spiral of negativity. The worst part is that even after all the pain she’s caused Chloe would still take her back in a heartbeat. Now of course she wouldn’t tell Max that. No, she’d make a huge scene out of their reunion and probably guilt trip Max until her lungs shot and maybe even yelled a little. But in the end, she would still take her back and love her the same way she did back then. They were Max and Chloe after all. Chloe’s mood became worse and worse as she continues to think about her ex-friend.

_“Worthless, stupid, fucking bi-_

She’s unable to finish the thought. Even after 5 years Max still has a hold on her. Chloe starts to pull up towards the lighthouse’s path hoping the walk would clear her mind of the brain parasite that was Maxine Caulfield. She shuts the car off, grabs her cigarettes, flicks Elvis, and heads out. “Rachel” she yells with a sliver of hope that she’ll respond. She doesn’t so Chloe tries again. “If you show up I’ll share the weed that I totally have on me right now!” She totally doesn’t. She knows she probably won’t get an answer and tries a different approach. “Marco!” She puts her hand up to her ear and gets nothing in response to her humorous approach. Tough crowd. Chloe hikes further up the path until the reaches the lighthouse. She calls for Rachel one final time, gives up, and takes a seat on the bench. “Another shitty day” Chloe mumbles as she takes a cigarette and begins to light it. Well more like tries as the zippo she was carrying refuses to start. “Goddamnit c’mon,” she says bitterly as she continues to try to start the lighter. Flick, flick, flick, flick, flick…. nothing. The lighter was dead. Chloe huffs out some air and leans back onto the bench. “Could today get any fucking worse,” she says to no one in particular again. As if on cue her phone lights up with a new news bulletin.

**Police have been able to successfully deduce that the cause of death of the individual was suicide by an intentional overdose. With the help of students from Blackwell police were also able to find out the body belongs-**

She shut her phone off before she could read the whole story. She didn’t need the doom and gloom of someone’s death along with her own misery today. She checks her phone to discover that it was 4:24 and decides to take a small nap on the bench. Over an hour passes until she was rudely awakened by her phone ringing. She flips her phone over and finds the words MOM in the middle of the screen. She looks at the time and sees that it was currently 5:46 and comes to the conclusion Joyce was calling to ask where she was. She did leave the house really early without saying a word to her. With that idea, she silences her phone and lets sleep retake her. Not even two minutes later her phone springs to life again with another call from Joyce. Chloe silences the phone a second time and comes to the new conclusion that Blackwell called and told her she was on the premise. Once again only a few minutes pass before the phone starts with the third call from Joyce. “Jesus Christ” Chloe yells as she grabs the phone. She was gonna head home anyways, but she decided to face whatever her mom was gonna scold her for now. She swipes the screen to the answer button.

At first, all she could hear was some shuffling and the sound of quick rapid intakes of breath before her mom spoke. “C-Chloe” her heart immediately sank. She’s never heard her mom that upset since her dad died. The idea of what could have brought her to such a state again scared Chloe beyond belief. “Mom what’s going on, what happened” she spoke into the receiver with her voice becoming shaky. “Chloe it’s-its” Joyce couldn’t even finish her statement before breaking down again. A knot started to coil inside of her and her voice became worse. “M-Mom please you have to tell me what’s wrong I-I can’t understand you” she pleads as she hears more sobs are shuffling on the other end. “Oh god Chloe it’s- it’s Max honey she” she couldn’t finish. She didn’t have the strength to. Chloe stared blankly out into the sea with what Joyce said swimming inside of her head.

_“Max. Max?. Max?! Max WHAT. What did Max do? What was she-_

It all clicked. At that moment everything clicked and the world seemed so much darker. The body. The young, brown-haired, female body. It was Max’s. It was Max’s body that was found today. It was Max’s body Chloe purposely ignore. It was Max’s lifeless carcass collected. Max was dead. HER Max was dead.

_“Oh no, no, no, no, NO! It can’t be true. There’s no fucking way Max is dead. She can’t be she was in Seattle what the fuck would she be doing down here. God please no don’t let it be true. Please, please, please don’t let it be true.”_

Tears were flowing freely down her face. She used all of her strength to bring her face to her phone. “Mom” she croaked with tears making her lips salty. “Is Max… dead” she asked with her voice dying completely at the end of the short sentence. “I-I’m so sorry honey she- she is” the rest of whatever she was about to say vanished in a new wave of tears. “They found her a few hours ago” she finally finished. Chloe couldn’t take it. She hung up her phone and bolted down the hill.

_“There’s no way she’s dead that’s bullshit. If she’s dead it would be on tv, right?”_

Tv. That was it, the tv. If Max was really dead it’d be on tv right about now. Chloe wasn’t going to believe it until she saw for herself. She got into her car and raced down the road not caring about the other people around her. At this point, she was in a tunnel vision until she reached her house. The know in her stomach became tighter and tighter as she got closer to her destination. The light of the world grew dimmer and dimmer around her. Her head began to hurt horribly. She pulled into the Price’s driveway with a screeching halt. Not caring about her keys she barged into the house slamming the door into the wall with enough force to knock down a few pictures. She stepped into the living room to find Joyce a complete mess of sobs and hiccups and David holding her tightly. Chloe looked in front of them and her world shattered in front of her. On the tv was a breaking news story about the identity of the deceased girl along with a picture of her face. The person was significantly older than Chloe remembered but the face gave it away. The eyes, the freckles, even the hair which was now shorter but still nostalgic. The person on the tv was indeed Max Caulfield. Max was dead. There would be no reunion, no guilt-tripping, no yelling a little bit, and above all no more Max and Chloe. The knot inside of her snapped and Chloe broke.

Her legs gave way sending her onto the floor with a horrible thud. She slammed her head on the floor and screamed. Tears practically drowning her as they fell with no filter. The pain in her head was migraine levels now. She screamed again, again, and again because she was physically incapable of producing words. The world drifted away from her. She began to hurt all over. She screamed and slammed her head again. Joyce rushed to her daughter picking her head up and whispered sorries into her ear. They didn’t matter. To Chloe, her sorries were a million lifetimes away. All she could hear was white noise. She screamed again not caring about her now raw throat. The pain was worse than when her cat Bongo died. Worse than when Rachel left. Worse than when her dad died years ago. No, her pain was several levels higher than that. And it was killing her. Her Max was gone. Her original best friend, her partner in crime, her original crush. She was gone. Today the last thing Chloe had of her past and the one last hope she sometimes resented was now gone. Taken away from her like everything else in her life was. And there was nothing she could do about it.

So she screamed again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah a perspective shift. Yeah the for the first arc, as I’m dubbing it, the chapters will switch between Chloe and Max so you can know what’s happening on earth and in hell. Like last time leave comments.


	3. Invidia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max learns about her own death and discovers her new demonic form.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went back and changed some things in the previous chapters (mostly grammar and spelling mistakes) and changed the chapter titles to words in Latin. Mainly because I thought it could be interesting. Chapter 1 is hell in Latin and chapter 2 is death in case you were wondering. Now that that’s out of the way. enjoy!

Spite

That’s what the emotion was. Spite. It’s a weird emotion due to how vile it was. The desire, the TRUE desire to harm someone be it emotionally or physically isn’t a common feeling one would have. It’s especially uncommon coming from someone like Max. Max wouldn’t consider herself a violent person by any means. Even when she was taken from her best friend by her parents and her world came crashing down she couldn’t bring herself to feel such strong emotions towards them. So the feeling surprised her when she recognized it, especially with how it fits so snugly inside her mind like it’s always been there. For Max it felt like the world came to a halt as the emotion overpowered her, filling every single spot in her mind like a blanket draped over her brain. And it was all directed towards one person…. Jefferson.

“Jefferson killed me,” Max asked even though she fully knew Lucifer wasn’t lying. “Yes indeedy” Lucifer replied a little too chipper given the moment. “Though it’s not surprising you don’t remember it given the method he used” he added under his breath so Max couldn’t hear. For a moment Max just sat there thinking.

_“I… looked up to him. Shit, I wanted to BE like him and to think he…_

“How,” Max asked voicing her next line of thought. “How what,” Lucifer said clearly playing dumb as if trying to avoid the subject. “How did Jefferson kill me?” He blinked “OH, yeaaaah about that. Are you reaaaaaaally sure you want to know how he did it? I mean it isn’t necessary to know and you could go your whole afterlife not knowing what went dow-” “ I deserve the right to know how I died” Max stopped him with her voice submerged in venom. Lucifer sighed and sat down in his chair, “alright fine, since you seem so adamant about knowing what happened I suppose it IS my job to tell you.” He began clicking his tongue while trying to make an internal decision. “He drugged, kidnapped, and overdosed you. I’m not gonna beat around the bush with this you’re a big girl and I’m assuming you can handle it.” He looked Max in the eye and she gave him a nod to go on. “You went out with him for a quote on quote private lesson which turned out to be a trap. He injected you with etorphine which is a drug used to sedate mammals like goddamn elephants so I dunno how he got ahold of that.” “Aren’t you all-seeing or something like that” Max asked, “no I only see observe people when I want to which is never, and when I have to which is sometimes.” Max just gave him a judgmental look. Lucifer cleared his throat and continues “anyways after he drugged you he took you somewhere and did an unconscious photoshoot of you. After that… thing, you evidently did something to cause him to overdose you and frame it as a suicide.”

“I’m sorry did you say frame it as a suicide” Max felt the need to ask. “Mhm,” he said leaning back in his chair waiting for the outburst. “… you mean he got AWAY WITH THAT SHIT ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!” There it was. “He committed a murder a damn HOMICIDE and you mean to tell me he gets to WALK FREE?!” At this point, she was pacing the room completely overflown with her newfound emotion. “Yes, and as much as it sucks he has been doing this for years so it’s to be expected” Max quickly turned around to face Lucifer “excuse me YEARS?!” The rage continued. “Yessir, even a few of his pieces are the result of this hobby of his” he air quoted hobby. “Wha- oh.. OH… oh mY FUCKING GOD” her pacing quickened. “Why did he do it?” “I dunno.” “How long has he been doing this?” “I dunno.” “Does anyone know about this” “I dunno that either.” “Well, what DO you know?!” Max asked clearly frustrated “well, your dead I know that.” Max flung her head up towards the ceiling and groaned loudly with as much angst as she had. She continued pacing until her legs grew weary then she returned to her seat behind the desk and slammed her head into it.

“Everything is awful,” she said with her voice muffled by the mahogany. “Well, it isn’t all bad” Lucifer chimed in.

_“Huh.”_

“And how is it not all bad,” she asked lifting her head up slightly. “I mean you did get the worst part over with” he got up and walked over to Max laying his hand on her shoulder. “And you get a sweet new attire to commemorate your newfound status” he finished with an excited glint in his eyes. “The heck are you talking about,” she asks her head now fully off the desk. “Your demon form” *jazz hands* “every person in hell gets one. When you arrive in hell your body receives changes like potentially wings, horns, tails, and a complete appearance change” at this point Lucifer was giddy which was worrying Max. “Okay? So how does this work? Do I like, say transform and spin or something?”

_“I mean it’d be kinda cool.”_

Lucifer made a face of disgust. “That’s a horrible idea. No, at first your demon form must be activated with an intensely stressful event. That’ll force it to show as a defense mechanism.” “So what my episode wasn’t stressful enough” she quipped with as much snark as she could muster at the moment. “Clearly not. Do you see any wings on your back or a tail coming out of your ass” he quipped back. “Okay then how do I- “BOO” - **AAAAAAAAAAAAH SHIT!** ” During her sentence, Lucifer vanished from beside her appearing behind her and lunged at her causing her to fling herself out of the chair and across the room in fright. “Dude what the fuck” she yelled oblivious to the changes to her body. Lucifer was unable to respond due to the laughing fit he was currently under. He actually started to choke on his own laughs.

_“He’s crying.”_

“Ok, ok” *sniff* “Dear Satan I haven’t laughed like that in a hot minute. I think I busted a lung unholy hell. And what do you mean what the fuck just look at yourself.” Max turned and checked every spot she could. No difference. “What I don’t see anything.” “Oh shit here” Lucifer summoned a mirror out of thin air and gave it to Max. I took her less than two seconds for her to notice the difference.

_“Wowser.”_

Her teeth were now incredibly sharp and canine-like similarly to Lucifers. On the top of her head rested two small pitch-black horns about four inches long. Her eyes went from her natural blue to a dark crimson. Her irises were also vibrating at an extremely fast speed with the fires of Hell seemingly burning behind them. Finally to top her demonic design were two large wings sprouted out of her back. They were batlike in design with the outside of the wings being black and the inside being crimson. The bottom of the wings had a shredded design with some red at the very bottom. In terms of measurement, her wings had about a 6ft wingspan. Max looked at herself at different angles in the mirror to take it all in.

_“I’m sure someone would say this was…. Hot. Hehehe nice.”_

She heard Lucifer groan in the corner of the room and was a little confused at first. Until she remembered his apparent mind-reading abilities and laughed. “Dear Satan that was awful. I’m kinda upset I even had to hear it” he said with his hands on his face in shame. “Hey, let me have this if you forgot I’m not having the greatest of times right now. Besides you could always NOT read my mind” she turned and looked at him with a shit-eating grin. “What and miss your reaction to your newfound form I don’t think so and speaking of” Lucifer walked over to Max cupping her chin and examining her face. “You got some pretty good luck on you to roll these results” he tilted her face slightly “I mean you have no real changes to your form besides the obvious things. Nice sharp teeth and piercing eyes.” He let go of Max’s face and spun her around with a vortex of flames to examine her new wings “incredibly crisp looking wings too. I’ve seen people get wings that look the seagulls after an oil spill and trust me it’s not pretty. Nice wingspan too they look a little over your height which is great for travel.” He stopped looking at her back and spun her around again, this time with his hands. “And no tail. Which is great they are a total tripping hazard. Once I fell down several flights of stairs because of mine. Absolutely bullshit. I never craved death more in my life than the moment I hit the bottom. Hmm. I’d say you got off pretty lucky with this transformation” he concluded as he started to walk behind his desk.

_“Ok that’s great I guess. Wait did he say travel so maybe I can fly with these things. Though how they work? Would I flex my back to make the flap? Would I have to account for wind speed and direction? Could I use these to wring the life out that jerk Jefferson? That’s the real question.”_

“Max if you had a problem you could have just asked you didn’t have to flood my head with your voice” Lucifer was now at his desk rubbing his head. “Oh um sorry,” Max said sheepishly “I just don’t know what any of this means and how I adjust to all… this” she hand gestures to her new additions. “Well I’m sure you will adjust in time now about a living space” he picked up a pen and some papers “couldn’t you teach me?” “I’m sorry, what?” Lucifer asked surprised and Max could feel his intense gaze behind his glasses. “You know since you’ve lived here all your life and know what more about this than I do I was hoping maybe you could teach me how to use these I mean you don’t have to it looks like you have a lot of work there in your hands I just thought that um yeah” the words came tumbling out in a shy waterfall as she felt a sudden wave of embarrassment. “Um… hell, wow, nobody has EVER asked me for help. When someone gets here they typically yell, throw a tantrum, and leave. Never been asked to teach someone before” he leaned back in his chair before making up his mind and flinging himself and the chair back up. “You know what kid? Sure, why the hell not. Could be fun” he got up from his chair and started to walk towards the door out of his office. “Wait, what about the paperwork you had in your hands,” she asked slightly worried. “Eh fuck it I can do it later. Or not! That shit on my desk is just to look professional I don’t even know what half of it is” he opened the office door “and besides it looks like you need a distraction from the hatred boiling inside you. You don’t really hide it very well.” With that, he left the room and signaled for Max to follow.

_“Okay, wowser! That actually went better than I expected. And I guess he IS right I should take my mind off of Jefferson for a while. I just can’t believe he did that AND he’s getting away with it too. If Chloe found out she’d hang him by his balls.”_

She felt a pang of guilt and internally sighed.

_“Nope can’t think about that now. I’m practicing my powers to CLEAR my mind. Probably shouldn’t add more to my mind plate. Plus it seems like Lucifer is expecting me so”_

She left his office and shut the door behind her.

_“Let’s go.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Invidia- spite
> 
> Leave comments.


	4. Volatus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max got her wings. Now she just needs to figure out how to use them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The new animal crossing looks wild.  
> That’s all I have to say today.  
> Enjoy!

_“Okay maybe sulking around wasn’t a bad idea”_   
  


Max and Lucifer were now on the roof of the Hellhole. Which was the ever so cleverly named building Max woke up in. Speaking of Max, she was now peering down the several story building and beginning to regret her decision to ask Lucifer for help.

“You really sure this is a good idea?” Lucifer turned to her “of course why wouldn’t it be?” Max looked down again, adding another dumb decision to the many she’s made in the past twenty-four hours. “Well, the drop will absolutely kill me for one.”

“And for two?” Max returned her gaze to him “and for two you’ve never taught anyone before.” Lucifer simply waved off her remark. “Ah, it’s fine, probably. Now the idea is plain and simple you jump off until you learn to fly. Kinda like how mama birds teach their bastard children to fly.” Max looked down at the oncoming cars and felt a sense of panic begin to spread. “I, uh, don’t think mama birds throw their kids off twenty-story buildings” Max was starting to REALLY not like this idea. “Eh, that’s because birds are bitches.”

“What am I even supposed to say to that?” Lucifer shrugged with a cocky grin “nothing just agree and move on. Speaking of moving on” he walked over to the edge of the building to join Max. “This is the part where you jump off and learn to fly”

_“Oh fuck”_

Well her mind was certainly off Jefferson right now. Though in hindsight the fear of death, well a second one, might overpower most other thoughts. “I-I dunno maybe I can just not fly. Like ever” Max said trying desperately to leave this situation. It didn’t work. “Bullshit, I can’t think of a more ideal way to learn to fly.”

“Literally **ANYTHING** is better than this! This is a real life-or-death scenario! And in case you forgot, I JUST DIED!” Max’s arms were flailing everywhere in an attempt to… defend herself? Lucifer seemingly not hearing her remarks walked closer to her “now might be a good time to hold your breath, can’t fly with the wind knocked outta ya.” His dipshit smile returned. “Lucifer don’t you dare” Max got into a makeshift fighting stance. “Too late.” Before she had the chance to fight back she was shoved off the side of the building. Tumbling down to the ground below.

Seeing your life flash before your eyes is already a strange phenomenon. Now imagine having it happen twice. In the afterlife. Then you’d know Max’s predicament. As she rocketed down the side of the building she thought about every inconspicuous detail of her life. None of it helped with flying however as Max learned. Not due to a lack of trying though, Max was in fact trying her hardest to get her wings to move. However stiff motions were all the got out of them.

“I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die!” She continued screaming until the ground began to come into focus. Slowly but surely the details of the ground became visible and Max was able to see a blue… something below her.

All of her thoughts became a jumbled mess as the ground waited for her with open arms. She was only able to create one comprehensible thought.

_“I hope this doesn’t hurt.”_

**CRASH**

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

…she wasn’t dead. Actually she was pretty comfortable. She opened her eyes to be greeted by the color blue surrounding her. Max was at a loss.

_“Maybe the after-after life is all blue. A very bright blue.”_

That idea was put to rest quickly when she heard Lucifer yelling at her. “You do realize that you were supposed to fly right? I assumed I was pretty clear with that.” Her fear changed to anger incredibly fast. Before she could say a word she was enveloped by fire and was yanked out of her blue cocoon. Next, then she knew she was back on the roof with Lucifer grinning at her.

“You” she growled. “Do you have ANY idea how scared I was! I thought I was going to die, AGAIN! You couldn’t tell me ‘oh, by the way, there’s a blue something down there to break your fall.’ You really couldn’t have said that!” As she yelled she made several fruitless attempts to hit Lucifer only for him to grab her hands in the end. “Of course I couldn’t tell you. People are usually able to do something better if they think their gonna die. Do you think mama birds inform their kids before they throw them out of the nest.” Max looked bewildered “probably!” “Well, they don’t they kinda let them go and hit the pavement if they fail. I mean it is one less mouth to feed if they do fail.”

Max stared at him for a good few seconds not really knowing how to respond. “Oh come on, did you really think I’d let you fall and die? Nah, I knew where I was shoving you off from. I was generous enough to let you fall on top of Georgie, our office’s blue gorilla inflatable.” Her life was saved by a blue gorilla inflatable, that’s something she wouldn’t be forgetting anytime soon.

Max was no longer angry, now she was just plain upset and her sad pouts her showing it off. Lucifer looked at her with a cocked eyebrow and met her gaze for a moment before she turned away from him crossing her arms. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He was actually starting to feel bad which was an emotion he absolutely didn’t welcome. “Okay, maybe that was a little cruel. And maybe I should have told you that you were safe, but on the bright side now you know there isn’t any danger.” Max’s pouting eased up a tiny bit upon hearing Lucifer's kinda apology. He clicked his tongue “sooo, want to try again?”

“I don’t know. I have no idea what I’m doing and jumping from a building repeatedly isn’t going to change that.” Lucifer held up his index finger and walked to the edge of the building. With a loud fwoosh his pitch-black wings shot out from his back. “Alright look, using your wings is more of a mental thing than it is a physical thing. If you focus hard enough on your wings and imagine them carrying you into the sky eventually they’ll work.”

To prove his claim he leaped off the building only to fly straight back up and do a mid-air cartwheel. He finished by flying straight down and landing in front of max, creating a gust of wind that blew her hair everywhere. “You see it’s all in the mind, no actual physical means is required,” Lucifer says while dusting off his shirt. “That doesn’t actually explain much,” Max said nervously, fixing her hair that was already, admittedly, already a mess. Lucifer sighed “well that’s all I got. I was taught with the mama bird method so I don’t really know what else I can do. All I can offer is the reassurance that you won’t die no matter how many times you fall, because that gorilla is a sturdy motherfucker. Just make you actually land on him.”

“Right” Max breathed as she reached the edge of the building. She looked back at Lucifer who gave two thumbs up and a huge grin. “Just a mental thing” she restated to herself. With a deep breath, she jumped off the building… and didn’t fly… again and after a few seconds, a string of fire surrounded Max and brought her to the rooftop.

This was the routine for a good few minutes. Max would fall off the building, fail to fly, and be brought back up by Lucifer. It, once again, was not due to a lack of trying. Max tried her hardest, but her wings simply wouldn’t cooperate. After an hour or two, Lucifer became to suspect something. “Ok. clearly there’s something we’re missing, but. What. Is. It” Lucifer practically yelled while slapping his cheeks in thought. “Maybe I’m just physically incapable of flying” Max offered.

_“I mean it makes sense to me and I really don’t feel like falling anyone today. Or ever really”_

“No that can’t be it. I mean you have giant ass wings and a small ass body, this should be super simple. What the hell am I missing.” Max sat crisscrossed while Lucifer thought to himself. She was actually pretty saddened by today’s progress or lack thereof. Which didn’t help her already bad mood brought upon from earlier. A cloud of sorrow hovered over Max’s mind as she thought about it.

_“This wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for Jefferson. None of this would be happening if it wasn’t for that sleaze. I could have finished school, became a real photographer, and lived a comfortable life, but no some fuckup with an agenda decided to make that call for me. Fuck, I can’t even apologize to Chloe now.”_

Her feeling of pity quickly morphed into a feeling of rage at the thought of her old friend.

_“I was going to apologize. I don’t know when, but eventually, I would. I don’t know if she would forgive me, but at least I would be able to see her and hear her voice. Now I CAN’T! Hell, I CAN'T DO ANYTHING NOW! No more photography, no more Mom, no more Dad, no more Chloe, Kate, warren, no more-_

Max’s internal fury began to make itself known to the outside world. Unbeknownst to Max, her whole body began to react to her anger. Her teeth were gnashing like an angry dog, her irises were vibrating faster behind her closed eyes, red spirals formed on her hands and traveled up her arms, and more specific to the scenario: her wings were beginning to fold into a launch position.

Lucifer turned towards Max and took a few steps back upon seeing the state Max was in. “Woah, hey, unholy shit Max what are you doing!? Calm down or your body is going to do something drastic!” Then it hit him. He took a few more steps back and sat down on his legs. Waiting to see if his suspicions were correct.

Max’s anger got worse, the red marks on her arms got darker, and her wings were fully cocked to take off, but she didn’t notice. She was in her own angry little world completely separated from the outside world. Her mood grew worse and worse until her wings couldn’t take it. With a loud fwoosh her wings unfolded shooting her straight into the air twice as high as the building. She was still in her little world until the force of her launch essentially punched her in the face. She opened her eyes and saw she was in fact far away from the rooftop and began to fall.

Lucifer's suspicions were right, but his idea was very poorly executed. He expected Max to glide back down, instead, she was crashing back down like a meteor. “Max you have to focus or you’re gonna crash!” Max screamed back “I HAVE been focusing” as she continued to fall. Lucifer began to think out loud “If an intense emotion of anger got her wings to jumpstart than another intense emotion should- THAT’S IT.” He cupped his hands and yelled at the top of his lungs “Max! Listen to me carefully! You have to imagine that if you fall the person you love the most will die!” Max would have scoffed if she wasn’t in grave danger “what?!” Lucifer growled “just fucking do it!”

_“Ok, ok, fuck! If I fall someone the person I love the most will die. If I fall my Dad will die, if I fall my Mom will die, if I fall Chloe will die.”_

Almost instantaneously her mind began to think about the life of her friend. The more she thought of it the more she believed that she would actually die because of her.

_“If Chloe dies Joyce will be in ruin.”_

The ground drew closer.

_“Chloe won’t have to chance to grow old.”_

Still nothing.

_“She’ll never be able to do anything ever again. She wouldn’t be able to live a full life and achieve actual happiness. Never knowing that life isn’t awful.”_

Fate still stood.

_“If-if I fall I’ll just be taking another thing from her!”_

Her wings reacted.

With another loud fwoosh she shot forward and began to glide. She was getting it. “Fuck yes! Now imagine them carrying you and where they’re taking you, remember it’s-” “a mental thing” she finished for him. She repeated that in her mind and began to focus harder than she ever could before. She focused harder and harder until something in her brain clicked and she began to turn on her own. Then she went up, then down, then left, and then right. She got it. Flying started to become easy for her. Her movement became less jagged and more graceful as time moved on. After a while, she started to get tired and had to land. So she went down to meet Lucifer and crashed onto the roof landing on her back. “The landing was pretty bad, but otherwise I’d say that you got it.” Max held a thumbs up before dropping her arm back to her side.

“Why did I get so tired all of a sudden,” she asked still on her back. “Oh, that’s because you wore your demon form out and it retracted.” Max sat up “is that why I’m so cold?” Lucifer grinned “oh no, that’s for a different reason. Check your back.” Max started to feel her back for something wrong. “My back what’s wrong with my back?” Her eyes widened when she felt the issue. “What happened to my clothes? Did HE do this?!” Lucifer waved her question off “hell no, when you enter your demon form your wings are compact until they’re out all the way. If you’re wearing clothes that don’t have holes, where they come out compact, are then it’ll tear the clothes.” Max just groaned.

_“He really could have told me this. Damnit I liked this shirt and hoodie too.”_

“Hey wait I didn’t see any holes in your clothes earlier” she pointed an accusing finger at him. “Eh, that’s because I live with it. Plus I have like a shit ton of other shirts so it’s no big deal. And hey, the first day of flight school was a success so I’d say it’s worth it.” Max continued to rub the hole in her hoodie “sure.” Lucifer opened the door to go back into the building before he looked back at Max. “Also I saw something very interesting before you flew.” Max looked up with a “hmm?” Lucifer motioned for her to come back inside “yeah I think you may be able to use demon fire related things.” Max’s eyes widened again “wait really like you’re fire whip thing you used? That kind of stuff?” Lucifer laughed at her excitement “kinda like that. How about after we find you a place to live we try your fire powers out next.” Max started to yelp with excitement. “Holy crap, YES!” Lucifer laughed again and with that, they went back inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Volatus- flight  
> Next chapter will be with Chloe. This chapter originally was, but I really wanted to write a chapter involving Max's first flight so I did this instead.


	5. Compositio

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe gets to have a talk with Ryan and Vanessa Caulfield.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you know theres a life is strange tv show being made? And it’s supposed to be announced the year too. It might be good idk.  
> Anyways enjoy!

September 11, 2013

* * *

* * *

It’s been exactly 10 hours since Chloe’s breakdown in her living room. Or maybe around 10 hours, but really who was keeping track of time. Certainly not Chloe. She wasn’t really doing much of anything actually. After she calmed down enough to stand she went up to her room and that’s where she’s been ever since. Joyce went into the hallway to potentially call the Caulfields and she didn’t really care where David went. To Hell hopefully.

Chloe tried to get up, but her body refused to cooperate so she settled on continuing to lay on her bed. Chloe heard her mother create a new batch of tears. Seemingly from the conversation, she was having on the phone.

_“Should probably comfort Mom right now”_

But she didn’t have the strength to get up. She did manage to roll over to greet the shelf on the right side of her bed however. Once there she fiddled with the things on here until she found what she was looking for. In her hands was a small Polaroid photograph containing a heartbreaking reminder of what she’s lost. It was a photo of Max’s tenth birthday with her and Max sword fighting in front of her swing set. The picture was undoubtedly taken by her dad which made it worse.

“Oh god, Max” she whispered in a cracked voice. Tears began to spill freely despite the gallons of them that poured out earlier. She brought the photo close to her heart and cried herself to sleep.

Only to be woken up by a loud bang from the front door hours later. Groggily, she picked up her phone to check the time. It was only 12pm to Chloe’s dismay. She contemplated going back to sleep until a booming voice called out her name. Normally it would be David’s voice yelling for her, but today was different. It wasn’t David’s voice. To her horror, it was the unmistakable voice of Ryan Caulfield. Chloe’s mind went into overdrive as she heard large footsteps come up the stairs. She tried to get up, but her body STILL refused to respond. So she just sat and stared as the doorknob turned.

“Chloe? Are you in here? Cmon trop-oh hey there captain.” Upon hearing her old nickname she started to cry again. Despite the tears, she’s shed in the past few hours. Chloe closed her eyes as her tears began to sting and buried her head in her arms. She cried for a few moments until she felt the bear-like arms of Ryan hold her tight. Slowly but surely she began to be able to speak.

“I-I’m so fucking sorry I didn’t try harder to talk to her,” she said in between sobs and eventually had to stop after a specific one choked her. Ryan just simply sat there and continued to hold her until she finished her thought. “It-it was just so much easier to get mad than to push her into talking to me again.” She lifted her head to meet Ryan’s gaze who simply chuckled, gave her a sad smile, and then let go of her. “That’s not your fault we should have given Max the push she clearly needed. However, we didn’t show up to make you feel worse. So, how are you doing captain?”

Chloe thought about it for a minute and decided lying wasn’t really necessary. “Honestly Ryan I feel like shit” her eyes widened at her swear “I-I um fuck I mean… goddamnit I… UGHH” she buried her face again. Ryan gave a genuine laugh at that. “It’s fine Chloe you’re not ten anymore I won’t scold you for swearing. Besides I’ve said a fair share of swears myself today.” Chloe relaxed slightly while acknowledging the sad undertones of his words. The Caulfields were always more strict than her parents and swearing to them was like the biggest sin anyone could commit. Especially in front of Max.

“I see you’ve taken the name Bluebeard literally,” Ryan said flicking a loose strand of her blue hair. “Yeah… strawberry blonde is overrated anyways,” she quipped her mood brightening a little bit. “Guess we’ll have to call you captain Bluehair now” he had a huge ass grin on his face after the joke. Chloe gave him a completely blank face. “Ryan I respect you and all that, but that was fucking awful.” Ryan and her dad always seem to be in competition with each other on who could make worse dad jokes. William was usually unmatched, but this one… might have taken the cake.

“Everyone’s a critic. Oh! I just remembered you’re probably wondering why I’m here.” The atmosphere of the room returned to its gloomy state. “Actually the thought never really occurred.” It really didn’t which is understandable considering how her mind was preoccupied at the moment. “And I can guess why you’re here anyways.” Ryan gave a stiff nod “yeah, we’ve decided to have the funeral here instead of Seattle. It’s what she would have wanted. This was her home after all.” Chloe frowned and looked at her feet causing Ryan to nervously clear his throat. “It’s entirely possible to have the funeral tomorrow or the next day if need be” Chloe had a dumbstruck expression. “Wait, really? Her body was only found yesterday” Chloe said surprised. Ryan nodded “yeah and it was an open and shut case. Because of that, the funeral can happen much quicker. It’s not something typically done this fast but we assumed the sooner we had it done the sooner we can start truly accepting what has happened.” Made enough sense to Chloe so she nodded.

Ryan patted her on the leg as he stood up to leave. It was now that Chloe was finally able to get a good look at the man. For starters, he looked mostly the same with his large body and beard intact. However, his face was a different story. The pain he was in was clearly sewn into the back of his face making him look slightly upset constantly. His face in general looked like it aged a million years in the span of a few days. Which it probably has. For someone who just lost his daughter, he seemed to be put together, but the heartache was still relevant in the fine details.

“Vanessa is downstairs if you want to talk to her too,” he said as he opened the door. “Oh, and who’s the stiff” he turned to look at Chloe. “Oh, you mean officer dickface” she winced at her abrupt profanity. “Somehow I doubt that’s his name.” Chloe quickly corrected herself “sorry no, his name is David and you could probably guess he’s not my favorite human being.” She looked up to see Ryan smirk “yeah I can tell. He was giving me a look the whole time I was downstairs. It made me feel… unwelcome.” Now it was Chloe’s turn to smirk “he makes ME feel unwelcome and I’ve lived here longer than he ever will.” Ryan chuckled and began to leave the room saying “I’m sure he’s a nice guy.” To which he was gifted a confident no from behind him. After that, he shut the door.

Chloe laid back down on her bed completely exhausted by the conversation and her crying. She couldn’t go to sleep however. She was well aware she should go talk to Vanessa since she was also suffering a huge loss. With an inhumanly large amount of effort, Chloe got off her bed and wobbled to the door. As she made her way to the hallway she could hear Vanessa sniffling downstairs along with the murmurs of David, Ryan, and Joyce. After a solid minute or two she made her way down the stairs creaking the last step fairly loudly. Everyone in the living kitchen looked over to see Chloe standing there like a deer in front of headlights. Vanessa wiped her eyes and rushed over to Chloe crushing her in a hug.

“Oh, dear Jesus Chloe. How could that have happened?” Chloe was completely surprised by the question and was unable to speak, luckily Ryan saved her. “C’mon Van don’t ask Chloe that. She’s in as much pain as we are right now.” Vanessa stumped back unwrapping her arms from Chloe’s torso and placing them instead on her cheeks. “Oh, honey I’m so sorry. Um… how are you holding up.” She asked between sniffles. “Not so great Vanessa. How are you?” It was a stupid question, but she asked anyways. “I just can’t believe my baby would do this to herself I never knew she was upset like that or I’d have… I’d have… oh god” she couldn’t finish her sentence and instead started to cry again. Ryan came over and ushered her into the living room.

It never really occurred to her until now, but yeah Max’s death was a suicide. Her legs buckled causing her to fall to the ground. She would have cried too if her eyes weren’t dried up. “I can’t believe it either,” she said in a small broken voice. Max was always a happy person growing up. In fact, she would always cheer Chloe up when she was feeling down. So for her death to be ruled as a suicide made no sense to her.

_“What happened in Seattle. Wait… her body was found here.”_

“Ryan. Why was her body found here?” Ryan looked up from his wife and spoke in a hoarse tone “she was attending school at Blackwell for photography.” This was news to Chloe and the thought that Max was in town and didn’t tell her kinda hurt her feelings. However, she quickly buried that seeing as it didn’t matter now. “Did one of the kids cause her to do this,” she asked. It wouldn’t have surprised her considering how much of that school was comprised of snobby assholes. “None of them said anything about her being bullied. They just said she kept to herself and didn’t really talk to people besides a couple of students and teachers.”

_“So that part didn’t change”_

“Fuck man” she gasped out. Joyce was now by her side rubbing her back to soothe her. It only helped a tiny bit, but Chloe appreciated the gesture more than anything. “Actually speaking of Blackwell,” Ryan said suddenly. “We were going to go through her dorm room in a few hours. Would you like to go ahead of us and take anything you’d want? Nothing is off-limits and I’m sure she’d want you to have her stuff.” Chloe was caught off guard by the offer “are you sure Ryan? I mean you’re her parents shouldn’t you be the first to do that stuff.” Ryan shook his head “we still need to give ourselves some time before we go and like I said Max would have wanted you to have her stuff anyways.”

The idea that Max would have wanted her to have her belongings brought her another step closer to tears, but for now, she pushed them back and stood up. “Any specific time I’d have to be there.” Ryan shook his head again “no like I said, we’ll probably take a couple of hours to prepare ourselves so you’re free to go anytime.” Chloe thought about it for a moment and came to the conclusion of going right away. “Is it okay if I go now?” She asked and was given the go-ahead by Ryan. Joyce looked over at her “are you sure honey? Do you want me to go with you?” As sweet as the offer was Chloe declined it “no I think this is something I have to do alone.” Joyce didn’t seem to like the idea but nodded anyway. Chloe stood up, grabbed her keys, and left the house.

The walk to her car felt like an eternity. When she got to her door and climbed inside she sat her head on the steering wheel. She knew that going to Max’s room as soon as possible was something she had to do. She didn’t know why, but it felt like a necessity. So Chloe sat there in her car preparing herself for the emotional destruction that lied ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Compositio- confrontation  
> Turns out today’s Chloe’s birthday so what better thing to do than to beat the hell out of her emotionally.


	6. Protervus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe makes her way to Blackwell to check out Max’s room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy!

September 11, 2013

3:00PM

* * *

* * *

As Blackwell came into view Chloe saw an immediate change in terms of decorations on the campus. Paper lanterns were strung across the four flag poles in front of the entrance stairs and were peppered in the trees throughout the courtyard. Chloe couldn’t tell whether it was in memoriam for Max or some school event.

She pulled into the front of the school completely ignoring the fact there was a parking lot and trudged up the stairs to the courtyard. The courtyard was a mess of people hurrying around for indiscernible reasons. Chloe tuned out the movement around as she made her way to the front of the school. As she approached the school's stairs she took a quick glance at the bulletin board. The only thing on it was a few posters for some football game and a few safe sex ads. Of course, there was also the missing person posters Chloe’s been plastering around town. One small glance and she felt a ping of despair in her heart but pushed it down thinking it wasn’t the time for that. Right now was about Max.

Chloe entered the school and was surprised by how… samey it looked.

“Fuck nothing really happens here huh?” She said to no one in particular. “Miss Price I know you’re no longer a student here, but please refrain from using such open profanity” she heard a familiar tired voice say. Chloe turned to her left to see the nostalgic face of Raymond Wells eyeing her. It made her both grimace and smile. “Wellsy it’s been a little bit hasn’t it” she said, but couldn’t hold her usual sass. “Not nearly long enough. what are you doing here? You’re not here to causing trouble while the schools in a state of disarray are you” he accused with no shred of sympathy.

_“Wow okay fuck you too prick”_

“Calm down Raymond I’m here to visit Max’s room,” he said through clenched teeth. She was REALLY not in the mood to get lectured. Raymond squinted his eyes at the use of his first name but chose not to comment on it. “No one is allowed in Max’s room except for her parents. If you want you can wait here until they show up.”

_“I’m not fucking doing this today”_

“I was told by her parents to check her room before them” she slightly growled getting more agitated. “Is that right,” he asked.

_“Raymond I swear to god”_

She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “Yes, Raymond that is right. So are you going to let me in or not because I’m REALLY not in the mood for this bullshit considering I’m in fucking mourning.” Raymond was surprised by the concept of Chloe mourning Max. “You knew Miss Caulfield”

“Like two peas in a fucking pod. Can I go now or not? I don’t think Ryan would appreciate you holding me here and not letting me go to her room.” Raymond took a step back as Chloe’s voice became harsher. After a quick second, he fished in his pocket and pulled out a key. “Here you go Miss Price but please don’t cause any unwanted commotion,” he said holding out a key for Chloe. Chloe quickly yanked the key from Raymond’s hand and began to make her way out the doors. “Thanks… and a little advice. Maybe don’t put refer to everyone by mister and miss last name it makes you sound older than you already are” with that she left the school and started towards the dorms. 

As she walked towards the dorms she noticed people giving her sideways glances. Probably out of curiosity of Blackwell's biggest delinquents return to the premise. She didn’t pay them any mind though and besides, she kinda liked her notoriety. 

She spun around a corner and found herself on the dorms lawn with two Blackwell bros throwing a football back and forth. One of them made a sexual remark towards Chloe to which he was greeted with a middle finger and his bro laughing at him. She walked in front of the steps to the dorm only to find Victoria and her posse blocking the door. Something she used to do back when she attended Blackwell. “Oh look if it isn’t Carri Price, the dropout failure of Blackwell. What are you doing here” she asked with an emphasis on you. Chloe at the end of her rope got in Victoria’s face and growled a low “move.” Victoria’s mouth slammed shut as she moved out of Chloe’s way any comments dead in her throat. Chloe shot her posse a threatening glance as she entered the dorms.

The dorms remained relatively the same as well including what she assumed was Dana’s (in her opinion) shitty hip hop music. She was about to ask Dana if she knew which room was Max’s until she spotted a mural in front of a door. “Okay here we go” she muttered.

She snuck past Dana in her room, not really wanting to strike any more conversations tonight. She nearly got caught when she lost her footing and nearly fell, but caught herself just in time. After sneaking some more she found herself in front of Max’s door. On the floor beside her room door was a photograph of her along with several candles and flowers in front of it. As well as a box covered with rose petals. She decided to leave the box alone. Chloe pulled out the key and started to unlock the door until she noticed a whiteboard on the wall next to the door that had some words of goodbyes written on it including:

**I wish we could have spoken more- Juliet**

**Rock the other side girlfriend- Dana xoxo**

**You seemed cool- Taylor**

**I’ll miss you Maxwell silver hammer- Warren**

**I’ll look for you on the other side- Kate** (with a little bunny drawing)

Seeing the kind words put a sad smile on Chloe’s face. When she leaned in closer she could see that there was another message on there but it was wiped off slightly. All she could make out was the letter S at the start of it. She shrugged it off and unlocked Max’s door.

She walked inside and felt even closer to crying than she was before. The room felt very Max-like from the photo memorial wall above her bed to the overall vibe of the room. Chloe noticed the paper lanterns above the photographs and smiled.

_“Guess they were for her. Wonder who arranged for that to happen.”_

Chloe walked towards the couch on the left side of her room and sat down, taking it all in. She got an eyeful of Max’s wardrobe and chuckled on how little it’s changed. “You always were a standard hippie Max.” She looked over the room until she saw something on Max’s bed and squealed out a happy noise. Leaping off Max’s couch she quickly scooped up Captain, Max’s childhood bear, from his position on the bed. “Hey there buddy it’s been a while since I’ve seen you huh,” she said as she inspected the bear. “Looks like they never fixed your eye did they? Man, I remember when Max hugged you so hard it popped off and flew down her throat. Jesus that was an awful day, but she did always say it bonded you two for life. Maybe she’d like to be buried with you.” She questioned the last statement for a little while before deciding against it. “Probably not. I doubt she’d want me to leave you in a box to fall apart and decompose.” She sat on the bed still holding captain. “Maybe I’ll take you home with me and introducing you to the glowy bear. Wherever the fuck he’s at.” She really didn’t know where that nightlight was. In less than a second Chloe’s phone went off pulling her from her thoughts. She pulled it out and saw that it was from Ryan.

* * *

4:10 PM

Hey you will need to get the key to Max’s room from Raymond.

I assumed so and already got it

Oh I forgot you’re a genius.

Stop anyone could have figured it out

Don’t sell yourself short Einstein.

Gross

Are you in there?

Yeah

How is it?

It looks relatively clean

But I don’t know how it looked before so

Nothing looks like it was stolen right?

Not that I can see

Though I think this rooms been on lockdown so I doubt anyone would have been here

I’m sure the punks there would have found a way in

Touché

* * *

“Excuse me are you Chloe Price?” Chloe's chat with Ryan was abruptly interrupted by a soft quiet voice at the door. Chloe looked to the doorway to see a sad-looking Kate Marsh standing there in her usual preppy clothes and bun. She was a tad surprised that Kate knew her name considering they’ve never formally met, but remembered that she was probably an occasional topic at Blackwell. “Oh hey Kate” she replied nonchalantly. Kate’s eyes widened “you know my name” Chloe turned back to her. “Yeah, I hear your name come up a few times when I talk to the kids here.” Kate nervously chucked and said, “good things I hope.” Chloe smiled “yeah of course” and went back to her phone screen. “You’re here for Max’s stuff aren’t you?” Now Chloe’s eyes widened. “How’d you know” Kate stepped into the room “she mentioned you once or twice and you are sitting in here holding her teddy bear.” Kate surveyed the room like she was looking for something. “Alright fair point and I hope he’s only said good things about me ” Kate looked at her “oh, of course, only good things.” Chloe found couldn’t find herself being annoyed by Kate’s intrusion. It was probably due to her soft voice and demeanor which Chloe found adorable.

Kate continued to survey the room until she opened a drawer next to Max’s bed. “Aha, here it is” Chloe looked at her puzzled “here what is?” Kate walked over to Chloe and handed her a paper-like item. She took it in her hands and gave Kate a weird look. “I don’t know who you are because of your track record I know you because of this” Chloe unfolded the paper and gasped. It was a Polaroid photograph of Max and her in their pirate costumes. It was the day her dad died and she and Max were cleaning Chloe’s room before everything went downhill. It was one of the last photos they took together.

“I didn’t know who you were when I first saw this, but I knew you were important because she quickly put the photo back. After some questioning during our tea sessions, she told me about you. She would always look so sad and distant while she did and it made me pray for you two to reunite. I’m so sorry it ended up like this.”

The photo was becoming wet in her hands. She didn’t realize it, but she was crying a river. Finally, after a loud snort escaped her throat she realized what was happening. She laid her hands on her head with the photo still in them and cried. Kate sat beside her and held her close. “Chloe” Kate’s voice was shaky but Chloe could still hear the power behind them.

“Max never forgot about you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Protervus- forward  
> Chloe’s really getting emotionally shit on in the story. Next chapter will be about Max’s adventures in power training. Which I’m super excited to get into.  
> Also don’t forget to wash your hands ya nasties


	7. Sententia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max attempts to throw fire and a big decision is made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow holy shit. It's been a while and a lot has happened with the world since then, huh. Honestly it's nice to be back after the long hiatus. This chapter has been through Hell and back with rewrites and redos, but it's finally here. To be fair though this is the longest chapter yet. I have a firmer grasp on things and chapters SHOULD be added more frequently. Try to take my word on that.
> 
> (Also JESUS CHRIST 1.1k hits! That's like 1k more than I expected. Thank you to everyone who showed interest in this story.)

September 11, 2013

Max’s apartment, East Pentagram   
9AM

* * *

* * *

Mornings in hell were not all too different than the ones she had on Earth. Besides the constant screaming and chaos. Max came to realize hell was kind of a war zone mostly. This was abundantly clear when she got her apartment.

Before she even got her apartment Lucifer explained the layout of Hell. Essentially there were two main parts. The Pentagram and the Outskirts, with the Pentagram itself being broken into the four directions. The Outskirts are the land around the Pentagram and is a no man's land. Max jotted it down as “pretty much just Mad Max”.

The thought of a lawless land in Hell scared the shit out of Max. Thankfully for her, it was a place where the banished are usually dumped. That and people who love chaos also go there. That was a thing. She figured because there was a place specially for the worst of the worst the Pentagram wouldn’t be so bad. Max has also never seen so many butt ass naked people in an hour. So, she was wrong. Even looking out her window now she could see two naked girls grinding on another girl with assless pants. Lucifer described these people as ‘disgusting’ and while Max typically didn’t want to judge, she kinda agreed with it. 

_“Can’t they have sex in their own home? Why does it have to be in public?”_

“Why don’t you go and ask them,” said a sudden voice. “AHHH SHIT” Max screamed while launching herself onto her couch. Which caused the couch to fall backwards with her. She looked up to see who the intruder was and was unsurprised to see Lucifer laughing while sitting on her coffee table. “Thanks jerk” Max groaned as she rose to her feet. Lucifer had to calm himself down before he could speak a comprehensible sentence. “Sorry sorry, but that just too good of an opportunity to pass up.” Max folded her arms and stared turned away from him. “Besides, it got you to stop ogling those three down there. I bet if you ask they’d let you join in” he said with a grin. Max turned around shocked and flustered “I wasn’t… I don’t want… I UGH!” She tried to hide her increasingly redding face, to no success.

“You’re so easy to fluster” he laughed. It didn’t help Max’s embarrassment at all. “I know, Chloe would do this to me all the time when we were younger.” Her mood soured a little at the thought, but she stomped the felling down. Lucifer made a hmm sound as if he were thinking about something. He didn’t voice his thoughts so Max didn’t ask. “Anyways I assume you're ready for more training.” She perked up upon hearing this. “Yes! Thank dog, it’s so boring in here.” Lucifer winced at the wording. “Ok first of all ‘thank dog’ really? Secondly, how are you bored? You could have watched tv.” Max looked at her tv and grimaced. “Yeah, I’m not exactly a fan of cannibal cooking shows.” Lucifer chuckled “what you don’t like seeing Mormons get turned into burgers?” Max gave him a cold stare “not really no.” Lucifer waved her off “ah whatever Armin is a great cook.” Max gasped “wait you’ve eaten people before?!” It made sense considering he was the ruler of Hell. Still the idea that he ate a person made Max sick. “Satan no I have standards. I don’t do half the shit people do down here.” Max let out a breath. 

_“Oh thank dog”_

“Seriously who says thank dog?” Max huffed “Me, I do. Can you get out of my head already?” Lucifer shrugged “sure I can, for now.”

_“Guess that’s something…. wait no”_

“I’m serious don’t.” Max felt like it intruded on her privacy when he did that. Now of course she wouldn’t voice this thought to him. Because well, he was the ruler of Hell. 

“Maybe, anyways are we gonna go, or are we just going to continue bickering?” Max looked around her to see if she missed anything. “No, I think I’m ready to go.” Lucifer got off the coffee table and stretched. “Great then let’s go.” Leading the way out of the room Lucifer urged Max to hurry up so that they could go to the place he picked out for today’s lesson.

* * *

Pentagram junkyard  
10:30AM

* * *

* * *

CRASH!

“Ow hell” Max screamed with a face full of red dirt. “Yeah, you really have to get better at landing. Here.” Lucifer extended his arm out to pull Max. She obliged and was yanked up immediately. The force startling her because she didn’t factor how strong Lucifer would be. “So remind me again, why are we in a junkyard?” Just looking at the place gave Max the creeps. The trash towers went as high as skyscrapers and the whole place just had a gloomy atmosphere to it. Not to mention it was a junkyard in Hell so who knows what the contents were. “Because it’s a place full of targets and nobody will care if this place gets smashed up.” It made sense, but Max still didn’t like the place. “Yeah and what do those targets consist of, bodies,” she asked as a joke but with some seriousness behind it. 

_“It looks like a place to store dead people”_

“Nah, a killer would have to be completely unoriginal to dump someone in a junkyard” Lucifer joked back.

_“Well that doesn’t help”_

“It’ll be fine so stop worrying about it.” Lucifer started to rummage through the trash towers for something for Max to destroy. “Still going to worry about it” Max yelled towards him. Not like he was listening. He was too busy trash fishing. Figuring out she had nothing else to do, Max started to wander around the junkyard. The more she looked at it the more it’s mood of doom and gloom became clear. Max reached to her side to pull out her camera, only to remember she doesn’t have it. “Ah right,” she said mumbled bitterly.

_“I bet that prick has it. Probably smashed it or something.”_

Her mood became sour for the second time today. And in the span of less than an hour, go team. Her feelings of bitterness morphed into anger which forced her demon form out. The fact she was easily upset only made her madder. She was usually able to keep her feelings in check, but lately, she’s been having mood swings at the drop of a hat. Which made her feel worse.

_“God I was never like this before, but can I really be blamed here? This is such bullshit! I died so Jefferson could treat his gross photo fetish! Yeah, that’s real fair. Plus, it turns out there is a God and he let this happen. Thanks for nothing.”_

Her wings threatened to launch her in the air if she didn’t calm down, but she didn’t care. Her mind was in a dark place until a voice cut through to her. “Max check this shit out we hit the jackpot!” Being brought back to reality Max realized what she was doing and quickly tried to calm herself down. Which only worked slightly. “O-okay coming” she yelled.

_“Ok calm down. I’ve already learned getting mad fixes nothing. Think about the positives. However little positives there are.”_

After clearing her head a little bit more she rejoined Lucifer as he was setting up something. Positioning herself to his left she was able to see he was setting up… mannequins.

_“Oh no”_

“Oh no what,” Lucifer asked. Max gave him a stink eye “I said stop reading my thoughts.” Lucifer threw up his hands “I know I know, but in my defense, I wasn’t listening to your thoughts from the moment we left the apartment to now. Maybe I should have, it looks like I missed something.” Max nervously held her arm “what are you talking about.” She then looked down to see her arms glowing with red designs. 

_“Oh great, I thought I fixed this”_

“You alright Max? Last time this happened you almost fell to your death” Lucifer asked with genuine concern. “Yeah no I’m fine just a couple negative thoughts, but everyone gets those. Right?” Lucifer didn’t look convinced “I think you should take a breather.” Max immediately turned down that idea “no the last thing I need is to do nothing. I NEED something to busy myself with so let’s get this started. Starting off, why did you choose mannequins?” Lucifer knew she was purposely changing the subject and decided to not try to dig deeper. “Why not? They’re sturdy and look like people.”

_“I mean yeah, but.”_

“But mannequins are horrifying!” Lucifer gasped and wrapped his arm around a mannequin “how could you say that to this pretty little face.” Max gave him a cold stare “are you serious?” Lucifer snorted “absolutely Charles here is adorable.” Max had to do a double-take “you named it?” He finished propping up the mannequins and made his way to Max’s side. “Of course, I named it why wouldn’t I.” Max only became more confused “it’s a piece of garbage.” Lucifer shook his head in disapproval. Max couldn’t help but sigh in defeat.

“So, what do I do,” Max asked. Lucifer simply shrugged. “Wait, what do you mean you don’t know.” He shrugged again “I’ve never taught anyone before, especially someone who awakens powers with emotions. I mean you’re already mad so just try it out.” 

“I’m not mad” Max argued. Lucifer sized her up and stared at the red marks on her arms. Then gave her a ‘are you sure’ look. “Ok I’m a little tilted there’s a difference.” He titled his head not saying a word. “Yeah ok I’ll try,” Max said giving up. She stepped in front of a mannequin, focused real hard, pointed her finger at it, and… nothing. Not surprising anyone in the slightest.

_“Yeah that seems about right”_

“Maybe try thinking about that girl again.” Max’s eyes widened with fear. Looking back, it should not have been surprising that he knew about Chloe. Still, it threw Max off course. “I-I don’t think I want to do that again” Max whimpered. Punishing herself like that mentally, as helpful as it ended up being, put a damper on her already shaky state. The sudden outbursts of anger showed how unstable she was. Max was unaware that behind her Lucifer had a frown of his own as he sat in deep thought. He eventually sat up and sneaked behind Max. She was still in her own world when a sudden 'boo' brought her out of it. After that Lucifer was on the floor and Max was clutching her heart. 

“Ow fuck, how the hell do you have such a good right hook,” Lucifer asked clutching his face. Completely ignoring his question Max asked, “why the hell would you do that?!” Lucifer sat up and dusted himself off “I was expecting you to shoot fire or something, not punch me in the face.” Max threw her arms out “well damnit you don’t do that to people!” Lucifer put his hands up defensively “Alright alright, no more scares. Not like it worked anyways.” Max felt a ping of guilt from yelling at someone who was just trying to help. Even if the methods were questionable at best. 

“I’m sorry.” Lucifer looked up surprised “huh.” Max took a deep breath “I-I’m sorry for blowing up on you and for um, hitting you. It’s just that” she paused and took a breath “I don’t know. I’ve never really felt like this before, my brains a mess and I can’t even think straight. I’m just so angry and it’s not even at one particular thing. I’m mad at Jefferson, mad at myself, just mad at everything.” Max’s voice began to raise a little as she attempted to swallow her sorrows. Her knees bucked causing her to slump to the ground. “Max you’re not in the wrong for feeling like that. Most people aren’t exactly too thrilled to come here.” Tears began to swell in the corner of Max’s eye. Which she batted away quickly. “I know I’m just not used to feeling like this. I have so many regrets and broken promises that just… hurt.” 

Lucifer was at a loss. He never had to face any situations like this, and it showed. He started to tug on his collar unconsciously. Which was a nervous tick he didn’t know he had. “Yeah, that’s the thing most people feel. Broken promises and wasted potential. I’ve seen people get pissed over that before.” To be fair he was trying his best, he just wasn’t good at consoling. Max slumped into herself more at his words. Knowing this Lucifer’s mind went into overdrive. He couldn’t think of something to say to her that didn’t sound hollow, forced, fake, or obnoxious so he settled on one thing. Distraction. “Those targets are still there if you want them,” he said trying his hardest to turn the mood around. Max looked at him teary-eyed with confusion before realizing what he was trying to do. She chuckled under her breath “yeah…. ok.” She got up albeit with some difficulty and made her way to the mannequins Lucifer set up. Lucifer let go of a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Ok let’s try this. How good have you gotten at summoning your demon form on command.” Admittingly Max wasn’t all too great at it. Though, to be fair she’s only had about a day to practice. “I can kinda do it manually,” she said clearing her eyes of the remaining tears. “Good enough for me. Now then, try to bring it out… oh, wait hold on. You’re already in it.” Max looked behind her and gasped “guess I was more pissed off than I thought and, oh come on. I just got this shirt.” Lucifer gave an amused snort “I told you to cut holes in the back to avoid that. Or at the very least wear a shirt with holes in the back by default.” Max just murmured in disappointment. 

“You still have no idea how to get my powers to work do you?” Lucifer shook his head. “Great” Max grumbled. Max decided that since Lucifer was going to be no help at all she would take matters into her own hands. Which meant slinging her arm in the direction of the mannequins until something happened. For three minutes straight. With nothing happening. Not one of Max’s proudest moments. “keep going I’m sure you will get there eventually” Max heard Lucifer say. “I don’t see you coming up with anything better.” Lucifer threw his hands up in defeat and let Max continue. Which she did. For several more minutes. Again not her proudest moment. After a while, Max got fed up with the situation and kicked dirt in frustration. “You still got nothing” Lucifer shrugged “yeah I don’t know what you want from me.” Max puffed out her cheeks and brushed a loose strand of hair out of her face “honestly I’ll take anything at this point.” Lucifer pondered for a moment “I dunno. Maybe just let yourself go and let the power come to you instead of it forcing it.”

“You threw me off a building to try and force my flying powers out.” Lucifer cocked his head “Yeah and it didn’t work did it?” Max’s gaze returned to the mannequins and decided that she really had no other option. So she stared down one of the lifeless displays and tried to ‘let the power come to her’. It didn’t work. She facepalmed and turned towards Lucifer. “Maybe I’m just not able to use fire powers.” Lucifer scratched his head in thought “no, there’s something we’re missing… maybe try setting yourself on fire.”

_“I’m sorry what.”_

“How could killing myself help?!” Lucifer looked at Max like she asked the dumbest question of all time. “Why would you die” he questioned. “Setting yourself on fire usually results in death?” Which is technically the case, but Lucifer just couldn’t grasp the concept of death by fire. “Max, you’re a demon. Fire physically can’t hurt you.” Which technically makes sense when Max thought about. She does live in the land of fire so it’d be weird if it could hurt her. “Yeah I guess that makes sense, so what’s the plan here?” Lucifer pointed at her arm, “for starters you could look down.” Max’s Arm was on fire. It was kind of surprising how she didn’t notice it at all. When she saw it she did the most logical thing… scream. “What the fuck do I do?!” Max tried patting down the fire which did absolutely nothing. “Try to shoot it off of you” Lucifer replied in a tone calmer than the situation asked for. The advice ultimately didn’t help Max as she settled on swinging her arm around. “Shoot it off of you damnit!” Max continued to swing her arm rapidly until her mind began to catch up to her. Then in a split-second decision, she turned towards the mannequins, looked on dead in the eye, flicked her finger at it, and shot.  
.

.

.

.

.

.

.

And missed her target completely, hitting a building in the distance. Though that didn’t matter to Max as she stared at her hands in awe. “I did it,” she said in a shaky voice. “yeah, that you did” Lucifer walked over to her and patted her on the back. “Keep in mind that doesn’t make me instantly not mad at you for setting me on fire,” Max said as she turned to face Lucifer. “I assumed that, but one question. Did you notice that you were just a tad off-target” he said as he pointed to the newly formed hole in an apartment complex. Max’s face quickly turned to one of horror as she scrambled to find her words. “I-I-I didn’t hurt anybody did I” she squeaked out. The thought of hurting someone scared her to no end. In fact, once when she was way younger she accidentally kicked a rock into a kid’s head and cried about it for hours to Chloe. “Probably not, but the paperwork that’s going to cause will be a bitch to handle.” Guilt began to rise in Max “sorry.” Lucifer simply waved her off though “its fine no need to worry. Felling any better?” She looked down “a little I suppose.” Truth be told she forgot her troubles in the heat of the moment (haha), but as soon as it was over her thoughts flooded her mind again. Lucifer realized this and contemplated his next move. 

As he thought things over he gave Max the task of attempting to improve her fire-throwing abilities. And as hard as she tried she couldn’t do it without outside intervention, luckily she eventually got used to her arm being on fire. When she was throwing fires she missed her mark constantly. She even managed to hit the same spot in the complex multiple times. “How can you hit something off in the distance more accurately than something in your face,” Lucifer asked seeing the ever-growing hole in the building. “I have no clue” Max returned equally confused. Despite the weird fact that she kept hitting the building in the same spot, which she STILL continued doing, she kept trying to hit the targets in front of her. Eventually, she grazed the arm of one mannequin, which she took as a win for her. “Why can’t I summon fire already,” Max asked getting annoyed by her lack of progress. “Maybe you’re too distracted” Lucifer chimed in. She thought about it for a second. It kind of made sense to her. Even if she was being distracted she still had recent events at the forefront of her mind. “Maybe” she mumbled before deflating slightly. Seeing this Lucifer made up his mind and came to a decision that would alter the course of Hell forever. “Alright I’ve had enough,” he said abruptly. “What do you mean,” Max asked him.

_“Did I do something wrong?”_

“We can’t have you being held back by the confines of this place so I decided that in order for you to reach your full potential we need to head to Earth.” This of course was a front for another issue he wanted to address by going to Earth, but Max didn’t need to know that. Max had run his words through her head dozens of times to make sure she heard him correctly. “Woah wait a minute. This seems like a half-baked decision” she urged. Lucifer cocked his eyebrow “do you not want to go back.” Max quickly shook her head “it’s just that I don’t know if you thought this out enough.” The last thing she wanted to do was convince him not to let her go back to Earth, but a part of her wondered if this was a bad idea. “I’ve been sitting on the idea for about a day” he shrugged.

_“That’s not that long.”_

“I still don’t know if that’s a, woah hey!” Her sentence was cut short by Lucifer dragging her arm towards the junkyard entrance. Max’s mind was a mess of emotions and conflictions. Of course, she wanted to go back, but the negatives keep occupying her mind. What would she even do? Where could she go? Could she meet with Chloe? Probably not considering she probably thinks she’s dead.

“This is a bad idea. Or it’s the best idea. What if something goes wrong? This has to be against some sort of regulation right? Argh, damnit I just don’t know. I want to go back, maybe that’s reason enough. Or is it? Either way, it doesn’t seem like I can do anything about it now. Looks like it’s time to do or die Max”

Lucifer pulled her out of the junkyard and unfolded his wings. “So Max any idea on where to go.” She thought about it for a moment, but the answer was clear. “Arcadia Bay.”  


  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sententia- decision  
> That's it for the first half of this arc. (Yeah I'm dubbing major segments of the story as arcs.) Which means less angsty shit and more demon Max and Chloe shit incoming.


	8. Funus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe and Kate get some alone time and go to a funeral.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, it didn't take 3 months this time.  
> Enjoy.

_Max,_

_I don’t really know to handle death, but you know that already I’m sure. I tried looking up coping methods for some shit to block out the noise. Weeds, alcohol, pills, literally fucking anything. Might even resort to dick hopping. (probably not I’m more of a woman’s woman) At least I have my humor. Fuck knows what would happen if I lost that. Why didn’t you call? Was it me? Guess it doesn’t matter anything. Nothing fucking does anymore. I found this thing where people burn notes to the dead. Let’s see if this works._

_Chloe, the too tired to actually write_

* * *

September 12, 2015

Max’s old dorm room, Blackwell

1PM

* * *

* * *

Boxes and boxes of packed belongings littered Max’s room. Chloe actually got a lot packed with Kate’s help. More than she probably expected. The Caulfield’s eventually showed up to help. Well, it would be more accurate to say Ryan helped, Vanessa couldn’t bring herself to touch her things. A lot of things were still in her room, but Ryan decided to get the rest at a later date. Preferably farther into the mourning process. They left last night, but Chloe decided to stay a little longer and eventually crashed. She thought Raymond would make a huge stink about her sleeping in the dorms, but not a single word was said to her. He either didn’t know she did or decided not to reprimand her. Chloe didn’t care which one it was. After waking up she just scanned the room before resorting to staring at the picture Kate gave her. This damn photo tore down any notion she had about Max. The uncertainty about Max forgetting her evaporated. Only to be replaced with more questions. Questions she deemed useless since she couldn’t exactly get answers to them.

A timid knock broke whatever thought Chloe was having. “Chloe are you in there,” the unmistakable voice of Kate Marsh said behind the door. Chloe rolled over Max’s bed to face the door “yeah I’m here.”

Kate gently pushed the door open and walked inside before covering her nose immediately. “What is that smell?” Chloe looked over towards the trashcan “Fire smoke.” Kate couldn’t help but gasp “Fire smoke! Chloe, you started a fire in here!?” Chloe shrugged.

Admittingly setting a fire to a death note in Max’s room was a dumb idea, but it was already in the past and Chloe couldn’t do anything about it now. “Yeah, I looked up coping methods like you said and found something ritual where people write notes for dead people and then burn them. Sounded cool so I tried it. You can, uh, smell the result of that.”

“I did tell you to look up coping methods, but I didn’t expect you to start a fire in Max’s trashcan.” She was thinking something more in line with therapy, physical activity, or things that could help with acceptance. Starting a fire didn’t even remotely cross her mind.

“Well, the other things like exercise and shit like that didn’t work so I had no other option.”

_“Neither did alcohol, weed, pill-popping, or the urge destroyer. But Kate doesn’t need to know that”_

A sigh escaped Kate’s lips. “Did it help at least?” She’d be slightly less worried if it helped her a bit.

Chloe shook her head. “No, not really.” She then turned to stare at the ceiling and look at the photo in her hands again. Before chuckling, worrying Kate in the process. “You know I’m glad Mama Kates here to watch over me.”

Kate yelped and stepped back. “I-I’m sorry I-I didn’t mean to overstep your boundaries. Admittedly it must be weird for a stranger to worry so much about you, I mean it-” she was cut off by Chloe’s giggles.

“No, no, no it’s fine I’m just fucking with you” she chuckled out.

Kate blushed.

“Messing. I’m messing with you” Chloe backpedaled.

Kate just sat down on the couch and looked out the window. Purposely not making eye contact with Chloe. The person in question couldn’t help but grin at Kate’s embarrassment. Before turning towards her and beginning to think. In the corner of her eye, Kate saw Chloe deep in thought.

“What are you thinking about” Kate gently questioned.

“Kate, what was Max like?” It was a question she had for a little bit, but packing forced her to keep it in her head.

The question took Kate by surprise. Chloe was constantly doing that to her. Saying and doing things that surprised her. Like holding one of Max’s shirts to her chest and saying, ‘damn she’s still flat chested?’ That one would have made Kate spit out water if she had any in her mouth. She stopped staring out the window and stared Chloe in the eye. She thought about it for a moment.

“She… she was amazing. And she was such a sweetheart. We both came here about the same time and we became friends almost immediately. I doubt she had a negative bone in her whole body. Even while being ridiculed she was still kind. She endured it longer than I would have.” Her tone became somber before she gave Chloe a bright smile. “I’m really happy she wanted to be my friend. We even had weekly tea dates to get away from all the chaos.”

Chloe gave a sad smile. “Guess she didn’t change much since childhood.”

“What was she like when you were younger.” Kate’s interest was piqued.

“Got ya interested Kate?”

Kate yelped.

“It’s fine. She was… well. She was Max. That’s about as good as I can put it. She was still a photography nerd. Always showing me these little moments where the world just seemed so bright. Like a dewdrop that perfectly showed off the morning sun, that kind of stuff. She was still a meek little pushover. Constantly getting haggled.” She smiled at the memories.

Kate tilted her head, “Did you help her with the jerks.”

“Damn right I did. One time a kid tripped her in the hallway so I punched him in the nose so hard it bled.” She was proud of that punch too. For starters he was the biggest guy in school, secondly, it stopped anyone else from messing with Max for a while.

Kate brought her hands to her mouth in a gasp. “Chloe! You made a kid bleed!”

Chloe sat up from the bed and waved her arms around “um, yeah I did. Nobody fucked with my Max back then.” Her eyes widened.

_“The hell was that?”_

  
Kate gave a sweet smile. “Your Max” she teased.

“Y-yeah my Max. Yeah! She was my co-captain after all. Pirates gotta keep each other safe don’t they?”

Kate’s smile only widened. “Yeah, they sure do.”

The duo’s escapades were cut short by Chloe’s phone vibrating.

* * *

Hey, the service is going to start soon. Are we going to pick you up?

* * *

Chloe’s face fell. In the heat of the moment, she forgot all about Max’s funeral. It was a lovely moment in time. To Chloe at least. Kate noticed the change and atmosphere and put two and two together.

“Was that Max’s dad?” She knew the answer without needing to ask. She could also guess what the message was about. Regardless she let Chloe talk it out.

“That was Ryan, yeah. He said the funeral is going to start soon. Wondering if I was going with them.” She said her response out loud “No I’m going to drive my truck.” She tucked her phone away and sighed. “Kinda forgot reality existed for a little bit there.”

After stretching, Chloe got off Max’s bed and surveyed the room one last time. She knew the funeral would finally let her start the mourning process properly. Didn’t stop her from dreading to go though. Especially after the gallons of tears she cried over the past couple of days. She felt her nerves tense and grabbed a cigarette to calm them. Kate thought about saying something regarding her smoking but decided it wouldn’t be right.

“Need a ride,” Chloe said with the cigarette hanging off her lip which caused Kate to spring to life.

She waved her arms back and forth whilst shaking her head. “Oh no, I couldn’t ask you to do that. I can get a student to drive me.” The guilt she would feel for bumming a ride from Max’s best friend would be unpalpable.

Chloe simply shook her head. “No worries man, I also think the company would make the drive less dreadful. So can you please come with me.”

Kate looked down before smiling a tiny bit. She blew a puff of air out of her nose, “yeah alright. You need a dress.”

“God no I’d rather die than wear a dress. I’m going to wear one of my dad’s old tuxedos.” She would have laughed at the thought is she wasn’t feeling like shit.

Kate giggled, “yeah I suppose you don’t look like someone who would wear a frilly dress.”

Chloe ushered Kate out of the room so she could change and made a mental note to pick her up after she changed. Despite the circumstances, she was glad she wasn’t going in alone.

* * *

Arcadia Bay Century

3PM

* * *

* * *

The service fucking sucked. Actually that was an understatement. It was a long session of sad shit and Chloe already faced sad shit for so long. At least the turnout was nice. Almost half of the kids and teachers at Blackwell were there. Notable absences were Victoria, her posse, and Nathan. Which put them on Chloe’s suspect list. The car ride wasn’t that bad either. Kate was pretty good company Chloe came to find. Especially how reactive she was to literally anything slightly risqué. Even Chloe calling her hot in her dress sent her to shambles. Though the comfort didn’t last long. Now she was sitting there staring at Max’s body in her coffin. And the most aggravating part was that Chloe felt empty. It pissed her off to no end. She’s cried like a baby for the past few days and now that it’s the right time to cry she can’t. It made her blood boil. Made her ashamed of herself. She stared at Max’s lifeless body and just felt empty. And that made her increasingly angry.

After the pastor ended his eulogy people got in a line to give their final words to Max. First were her parents then anyone who got in line after them. Chloe approached the casket as people finished their thoughts. At this point, the only people in front of her were Brooke and Mark Jefferson who was at her coffin. Chloe felt uneasy about him being there especially since he was the only teacher to approach her casket.

“How come he’s the only teacher to get in line,” Chloe asked Kate who was behind her.

“I’m not sure, but he was her favorite teacher so maybe there’s reason in that.” It was the only answer she had.

It just rose more questions in Chloe’s head. “What subject did he teach,” she asked.

“Photography.”

“Figures.” Made sense to Chloe. She was too mad to give it further thought anyways.

Jefferson stepped away and was replaced by Brooke moments later. Chloe eyed him as hell went straight for the exit. Before rolling her eyes and looking forward. She started to zone out before she felt a tiny tug at her sleeve. She turned to see Kate’s concerned face.

“You okay? You’re making a lot of faces there.” The concern in her face made Chloe feel guilty.

“Yeah, I’m fine just you know. A lot of things happening up in here” she said while pointing at her head. Kate didn’t look convinced but looked down, deciding not to push further.

Brooke finally moved out of the way and Chloe made her way up to the casket. She placed her hands on the end of the casket and just stared.

_“Why? What is wrong with me? I’m sitting here looking at the fresh body of my old friend and I can’t even fucking cry. What is wrong with me! Goddamnit fucking FUCK!”_

“FUCK” Chloe screamed, startling everyone around her. “GODDAMN FUCKING FUCK! I'M STARING AT YOUR DEAD BODY SO WHY CAN’T I FUCKING CRY!?” She flung her hands off of the casket and stormed out of the building. She fumbled to take a cigarette out of her pack. When she got one she dropped it immediately. “FUCK” she screamed again before trying to get another one.

She continued to storm off until she reached her truck. She flung the door open and stepped inside shutting the door behind her. She then slammed her head on the staring wheel saying fuck all to anyone watching. Including her Mom. She heard the door beside her open and grumbled at the intrusion. She was about to explode on whoever dared to disturb her until she saw who it was. Staring at her was an incredibly tense Kate Marsh. Her temper lowered just a bit. Kate was lucky she was ungodly cute.

“You said you were fine,” Kate said finally deciding to pry.

“Yeah guess what? I’m not, big fucking surprise” Chloe spat despite herself. Feeling guilty afterwards.

Kate didn’t back down though. “Please Chloe talk to me here.” She desperately tried to cling onto something. Anything. To make Chloe talk to her.

“Why do you care so damn much you just fucking met me” Chloe growled finally growing frustrated at the meek bunny-like girl.

“Because I can tell you’re a good person and a friend of Max is a friend of mine. Please Chloe I can’t help if you don’t let me.” Kate was surprised at her own confidence at that moment.

Chloe looked at the girl desperately trying to help her and simply told her to get in. Kate hoped that meant Chloe would talk to her, but she just sat and remained quiet. Chloe didn’t let anyone in that evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funus - funeral  
> You may have noticed the style of writing has changed as the story progressed. I'm still trying to find a writing style I like. I feel like this one will stick. Sorry for the inconsistences.
> 
> (The big moment is approaching)


	9. Reditus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max returns to Earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay once a-fucking-gain I'm trying to get my shit together.  
> Enjoy!

September 13, 2015

* * *

Lucifer’s office, West Pentagram

8AM

* * *

* * *

Death is a permanent status a person is put through at the end of their lifecycle. With no way of returning and no way to contact the living. Death was thought to be the final frontier, it is not and Max was about to realize this.

“Doesn’t this break some kind of afterlife martial law?” Max asked as Lucifer fiddled on a tablet. The idea she could just go back to earth without any repercussions seemed too good to be true to her. Of course, she was excited about the prospect of returning, but the nagging sense of doubt in the back of her head made her re-review the idea.

“What are you talking about? Of course, it does.”

“The- wha- but- uh- t-then why are we doing it? I don’t want to be held in contempt of court of the lord.” Max frantically waved her hands around as her nerves shot. If there’s a Hell that means there’s a Heaven and Max did NOT want to piss off the person who ran that. Especially since his name is literally God.

Lucifer chuckled under his breath. “Yeah which is why this is an incognito mission. We get in, master your powers, maybe watch your friends from the sidelines, and get out. We should have it done before the man upstairs notices.” He continued messing with the tablet in his hands, paying no attention to Max’s worsening expression.

Max had to do a double-take to see if she heard him correctly. So not only were they breaking heaven laws, but they were also going to have to sneak around Earth. Nothing wrong with that plan at all. Nope. “This is an awful idea.”

Lucifer lifted his finger from his tablet and pointed it directly at Max. “No, this is an entertaining idea. Which by process of elimination, is the idea we should go with.” In reality he half-baked the idea.

“You half-baked this idea didn’t you.” Max had her arms crossed and was staring daggers at Lucifer by this point. He focused more on his tablet.

“Do you honestly think that I, Lucifer: overseer of the underworld, would half-bake an idea as big as brining a damned soul back to earth.” He said in an offended tone. Max’s eyes simply focused on his face.

“Yes, yes I do think that Lucifer, overseer of the underworld, would lazily put together a plan such as this.” Her eyes didn’t relent. Eventually sighed and turned to face her.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, there is no RIGHT way to go about this. I’m simply going with the way that seems the most… fun?” He shrugged. Max supposed that he was right. She couldn’t really think of a right way to infiltrate Earth herself.

Max thought about it and a question popped into her mind. Why was Lucifer doing this? What did he have to gain from this? The more she questioned the more she wanted to voice this. Then her mouth moved before her brain did. “Why are you banking so much on me. It’s not like you're getting anything about it.”

_“FUCK!”_

Lucifer let out a cackling laugh before returning his gaze to Max. His stare burning holes into her behind his sunglasses. “I have my reasons, but you don’t need to think about that… yet.” A huge tooth grin appeared on his face proudly showing off his canine-like teeth. Max sunk into herself.

“Could you make this any more suspicious” she said despite herself.

Lucifer leaned back into his chair and tapped his chin. “Well, all I can say is that my goals overlap yours. So if everything goes right we will both leave gaining something.” Him trying to dance around the topic wasn’t lost on Max. Though, it wasn’t like she was in a position to change anything. Max gathered that whenever he had his mindset on something it was going to happen one way or another.

Lucifer’s gaze returned to his tablet raising the question as to what was taking so much of his time.

Max weaved around his desk and looked over his shoulder. The tablet was displaying a world map rapidly switching between cities with circles and strange letters flashing in the corners. If Max were epileptic it probably would have ended her right then and there. “What are you doing” she finally asked.

“Well since me opening a portal from here to Arcadia would cause too much noise I’m looking for some poor fucker who decided to use an Ouija board and use it to bring us up there.” Wait, aren’t those sold to children.

“Isn’t that a kids toy.” They wouldn’t sell something that powerful to kids. That has to break some kind of moral code.

“Yeah, it is” Lucifer agreed. “Honestly, I have no clue why the same people who make shit like My Little Pony make demon contact devices, and then have the gull to put it in the same fucking isle.” He turned his chair to look at Max. “You have NO idea how annoying it is to constantly have stupid middle schoolers using those damn things and causing a ruckus down here. If it was up to me I’d drag those bastards down here the moment a connection was made, but they are giving us a gateway so I shouldn’t complain all too much.” Max didn’t expect the king of hell to have such a high hatred for a children’s toy. Nor did she expect companies to sell such a toy. She’d probably have to throw all of them out of the toy aisle when she enters a store in the overworld. As she considered this a ding was heard from Lucifer’s tablet. “Alright looks like we got someone and they are in… oh FUCK!” Lucifer yelled on a frequency so loud the room jittered a little causing Max to spring back behind his desk.

“Holy crap what?” She asked with a hint of fear behind her voice. This was the first time she’d seen the mostly easy-going Lucifer actually pissed.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose and huffed. “We have a connection all right. However lucky for us it’s in Portland of all places.” He made a noise of disgust and started rubbing his eyes.

_“What?”_

“What’s so bad about that. Portland’s not that far from Arcadia Bay.”

Lucifer flung his head back. “I know that it’s just. I REALLY fucking hate Portland” he growled.  
  


_“Again what?”_

“Um, Why.” From what she remembers from Portland it wasn’t that bad of a place and Voodoo Doughnuts was practically the closest thing to Heaven on earth. Then again it has been years since she’s been there. Maybe it something bad happened to-

“Hipsters.”

“Come again?”

“It’s the hipsters I hate. Actually no it's every damn citizen of that city. Literally any place that believes that punk rock isn’t a dead genre is worthy of destruction. Like holy shit Portland, all your lives primetime is over. Quit trying to recapture your glory days, because frankly, it's annoying. Especially the one with dyed hair. They are always such dicks.” Never could have guessed the king of hell hated this either.

“That’s such a petty reason to hate Portland” Max giggled.

“Bite me.”

“I’ll pass”

“Fucking smartass. Anyways that aside looks like we have no other option so…. Portland it is.” With a few taps to his tablet, Lucifer established the connection. Max noticed a huge increase in pressure in the room until.

**BANG!**

A massive black spiral appeared in the room. Max could faintly hear a conversation on the other side of it. Though she couldn’t exactly make out what was said. “So I guess this is our ride.”

“Sadly yes.” He looked at his tablet one more time before chucking it out the window, shattering the glass in the process. “So anything we forgot?”

“The fact that this is a bad idea?”

“Nope didn’t forget that. Let’s go.” He made his way to the spiral and placed his hand in it before taking it back out. “Satan, I can FEEL the disappointment. How about you go first, it is ladies first after all.”

“Yeah whatever you baby.” Max approached the spiral gently putting her left leg in. Before being shoved through.

* * *

Random apartment, Portland

8:50AM

* * *

* * *

“Tommy quit being such a bitch, it’s a dumb kids toy” a kid that was in fact not a bitch said.

“I personally like living and I don’t want to die because of your dumbass ideas Elijah” the bitch that is Tommy said.

“Dumbass? It’s a piece of wood what the hell can it do?”

“Summon demons, haunt the house, fucking kill us! You’ve seen the movies!”

“Yeah those are movies, y’know, fake things with special effects.” Elijah proceeded to slam his hand on the board a couple of times. “There’s no way this thing can do anything.”

“Are you certain about that” a new challenger said.

Elijah screamed and shot towards the far side of the room. He looked up to the glowing red eyes of Lucifer. All bitch Tommy could do was stand in horror. And a little bit of pride. He was right after all.

“Don’t you know not to play with unholy objects. You might get a surprise you didn’t want.” Lucifer proceeded to walk towards Elijah and crouched down to meet his eyes. “On the bright side, you did give me and my colleague a way to get to the surface undetected. Isn’t that right Max? … Uh, Max?” He looked around and found no Max insight. “Did the portal fuck up before she could cross?”

A loud noise found its way into Lucifer’s ears. It was Max screaming. He turned and found that the source was the board. Then he realized the screamed were getting closer… and closer.. and closer… and

“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH- ***CRASH***

Max flew out of the board, onto a dresser, which she went straight through, into the wall, destroying that too. A groan escaped Max’s lips as she tried to stand up. The world around her was spinning and she saw several stars in her vision. “You didn’t tell me that it would be painful” she managed to say. Once her vision slowly returned to her she noticed something. “How did you get here before me!?”

“I dunno.”

“You don’t know?”

“Never brought a passenger with me. Didn’t really know what would happen” he shrugged.

“I think I’m going to puke”

“Do it here then, it’s not my house”

Their banter was interrupted by a timid ‘excuse me.’ Everyone in the room turned to find that bitch Tommy was the one who cut in. Not a bitch move in retrospect.

“Who are you” Tommy questioned.

“Oh,” Lucifer said in a chipper tone. “Of course allow me to introduce ourselves. I’m Lucifer, lord of the underworld, and this little darling who’s about to spit up in your room is Max. No important title for her.”

“I’d hit you if I wasn’t seeing two of you right now.”

“Lord of the underworld? As in Satan” Elijah yelled.

“What, no. Satan’s my dead father. I’m his son and new ruler of Hell. And I’d hate to cut this short, but I don’t care who you two are and I get the feeling some more unwanted Portlanders will be joining us soon so we’ll take our leave.” He walked to a window on one side of the window and creaked it open, scooping Max up in the process. “See you two in a few years” and with that, he jumped out the window of an apartment complex. Luckily, he actually knew how to use his wings and flapped to break their fall.

“I told you I was about to puke so why are being rougher with me!?” Once the words left her mouth something else decided it was time to come out to. Onto the floor.

“Well I had to get us out of here before any major incidents happen. No one’s going to believe what those two kids said, but an adult might be more difficult. If anything you should be thanking me.” He held his head up high like he saved a civilization or something.

Returning towards Max he noticed her hurl session was over. “Can we just go now. I think my opinion of Portland is tainted now.”

“Now you’re seeing things my way. C’mon let’s find a vehicle.”

“Can’t we just fly?”

“Over a packed city and several highways? No.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“Don’t worry I have an idea.”

“Demonic powers?”

“Nope.” He fished in his shorts pocket for a second then pulled out a stack of cash. “Bribery!” He then proceeded to run towards the sidewalk with Max following behind. He found someone driving towards them and walked in front of the car forcing the driver to stop.

“What the hell do you think your doing” the man in the car yelled.

“Good evening my good man. Can you help us” Lucifer said in a mock tone.

“What, no! Get out of the road!”

Lucifer flashed the sum of cash at the driver. “What about now” he grinned.

The driver seemed much more onboard now. “What do you want,” he said flatly.

“One ride to the outskirts of Arcadia Bay, no questions asked.”

The man looked deep in thought for a second. “Alright fine, get in”

Max and Lucifer loaded into the car and Lucifer handed the man the money. Max of course taking the proper time to buckle up while Lucifer just… didn’t.

* * *

Welcome to Arcadia Bay sign, Arcadia Bay

10:07AM

* * *

* * *

The car pulled to the side of the road letting Max and Lucifer out before speeding away. Max looked over to see a huge grin on Lucifer’s face. “What are you so happy about?”

Lucifer met her eyes. “The money was counterfeit” he grinned.

Max facepalmed “are you kidding me, why?”

He shrugged “fuck Portlanders.” He then walked past Max to view her hometown. It was a dump frankly, but it had a small-town charm. He could understand why Max would like it so much. “Well, this is your town. Anywhere you want to go first?”

Max pondered for a moment before deciding. “I don’t think they would have cleared my stuff from Blackwell yet. Let’s go there first.”

Lucifer made a sound of agreement and looked back towards the town. “Guess this is your return to Blackwell.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reditus- return  
> (So close now)


End file.
